every thought I remember thinking during Devil Wears Prada 2
we need more movies like this...
I wouldn’t dare subject you to a cognitively-representative stream of my consciousness throughout Devil Wears Prada 2, so I’ve organized them into sections a la an issue of Runway.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
The thing about The Devil Wears Prada is it shaped all of my personal ambitions. When the first movie came out in 2006, I thought: I need to be that. My goal was Miranda Priestly, but of course, I was much more Andy Sachs.
I already felt eager to grow up and make something creative and visionary, but at 17, the best I could do was bitchy editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. I definitely didn’t have the budget or the body, though my grandfather worked in the liquor industry and was friends with the founder of Wine Spectator/Cigar Aficionado, so he convinced his friend to take a chance on the smart, fat girl for a summer internship. I took the LIRR to the city every day, and then I spent almost every dollar I earned to buy Miranda’s sunglasses.
The minute I had enough cash to afford them (it took almost the whole summer), I raced to the Oliver People’s store in Soho during my lunch break to buy them. I can distinctly remember being worried that I’d left my desk for too long (as if anyone cared, they definitely didn’t, but I fancied myself the Second Assistant).
I wore them for years until one of the lenses popped out.
I grew up to reject the bitchiness, control, and fatphobia Miranda Priestly embodied, and watching the sequel, I proudly saw far more of my aspirations in Andy than in Miranda… until the end, with Miranda’s giddy admission that “I just love working!”
Because I too just love working! And I love media! Even though I feel the gut punch every time another outlet goes under or cuts their newsroom or capitulates to a billionaire, I would never want to do anything else. And like Andy, I care about journalism surviving and that true, important stories get published without influence from the people they’re intended to expose.
Devil Wears Prada 2 didn’t have to actually say anything, but I’m so grateful that it did. The writers cared enough to have a perspective about its time and its subjects, to track a tangible evolution in the industry, and use the massive publicity to do what art is supposed to do: make meaning out of confusing and painful circumstances. Like this movie that’s ostensibly about high fashion making me feel genuine grief about how soulless tech billionaires would gladly replace human artistic achievement with AI slop if it would add an extra comma to their bank account.
I’m so grateful that this production aimed for genuine cultural relevance and not just great gowns, beautiful gowns. The cruel irony is, of course, that the sequel was only granted this massive budget as a result of the exact dynamics the sequel is critiquing. They filmed in Milan, New York City AND Lake Como, for gods sake. All of which turned out to be a good financial decision, because the film achieved profitability in the first weekend.
With great budgets comes great responsibility, and too few women are given control over them, especially in media, especially now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 says it all.
COVER STORY
My expectations for a big-budget sequel are never high (my assumption is always Big Old Money Grab), so maybe it’s benefitting from a low bar, but this was the best sequel I’ve seen in years. Like Father of the Bride 2 or, if I were someone who cared for it, The Godfather 2.
It would’ve been easy to phone in the whole production and create a gorgeous, heavily-shilled shell of a movie, stuffed with recycled jokes but no meaningful message or plot. Part of what made this such a delight was how they executed those callbacks through the score and cinematography, rather than just…repeating the same lines and letting thoughtless nostalgia carry us along.
Here are all the callbacks I clocked (and can remember). Comment what I’m missing!
In the opening sequence, Andy is walking to work and a street seller holds up two similar looking belts — a reference to Miranda’s iconic Cerulean Speech and a motif that completes the belts’ trend cycle from a high fashion Runway shoot in the first movie (2006) to being sold on the street in the sequel (2026), which itself ends with Andy wearing what looks like her original cerulean sweater in vest form.
Miranda hanging up her own coat… the indignity
Andy unpacks her new apartment in a similar outfit with similar music as in the first movie
Andy goes to dinner with three friends after she gets her new job
Later she gives Lily a freebie bag that she fawns over. Very grateful for the return of Tracie Thoms as “This is the new Marc Jacobs!” Lily.
The search for Lucy Liu’s number = chasing down the Harry Potter book
Andy shows up at Miranda’s house and goes upstairs when she shouldn’t *Emily Charlton voice* …yet again
It looks like Miranda lived in the same townhouse from the first movie, and I appreciate the continuity. They’re lucky the owners didn’t sell or renovate.
Spotted the twins at Miranda’s Hamptons party (knew immediately who those redheads were)
Emily Blunt explaining luxury retail to Andy seemed like it was supposed to be reminiscent of the Cerulean Speech but didn’t quite go the distance
Emily having lunch with Donatella Versace triggered “call Donatella, get her jet” in my brain
A revelatory conversation between Andy and Mirandy (sic) in the back of a car in a European fashion capital. To be those drivers…
A last-minute twist revealing one of the characters to be savvier than we thought: in the original, it was Miranda keeping her job because of “the list” and in the sequel, Nigel shares that his text to Jay Ravitz got Andy the features editor job. Forever my girl…?!?! STANLEY PLEASE.
The final scene in Miranda’s office — I can’t remember the exact dialogue but it was something like “what…GO” and it just worked. I need to see it again.
Naturally, I went home and started watching the original, and Anne Hathaway’s eyebrows really were the same. But I agree with her, they’re fine?
I also noticed some broader plot points were a mirror to the original, like how Andy started the first in an unsupportive relationship and ended up single, but started the sequel happily single and ended with a supportive partner.
There was also a surprisingly substantial amount of plausible character development, like how Miranda ends the sequel with an epiphany — finally seeing Nigel as the talented and trustworthy partner he’s always been — in contrast to how the first movie ended with Nigel’s epiphany that Miranda screwed him over.
FEATURES
Meryl is so good as Miranda Priestly, and it’s only because tHe AcAdEmY would never award this kind of role that she won’t get an Oscar for it. Even though a lesser actor in this role would’ve easily veered into hamminess. I consider it a serious achievement when an actor can elevate a fictional character to household name status (e.g., Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope).
Simone Ashley and Caleb Hearon as the First and Second Assistants both gave distinct, memorable performances. Give them more roles!
Justin Theroux pulled off the evil billionaire villain without leaning on mimicry of a real-life caricature, and he made a trope-y role feel sufficiently original.
All the cameos made sense. It was a fun game of I Spy trying to catch them all in the party scenes. I spotted Law Roach, Amelia Dimoldenberg, and Ciara at Irv’s birthday party. Noticeable Ashley Graham callout as a nod to evolving body standards in fashion (sort of). Kara Swisher and Tina Brown at the Hamptons party… they’re my career idols for a reason. If there’s a third movie I’m ~manifesting~ a cameo.
Also, quick catch in the first minute: I was so excited to hear Milly Tamarez’s voice on the podcast Andy’s playing in the opening scene (she calls Miranda Priestly irrelevant). Milly is one of my former podcast cohosts on the Betches Sup and I recognized her voice immediately! Go follow her on IG and TikTok!
FASHION
See below. I will exclusively be holding my bags like this going forward. I also came home and started hunting down this peach Lanvin trench (below, right) but I can only find it in off-white and… it’s just not the same.
There was one big Miranda miss for me: this tassel jacket. THAT IS…until she did the funny shake thing with it. She made it work.
Can’t say I was a huge fan of this one either. Was it RBG inspired? Random side note: Lauren Weisberger, the author of Devil Wears Prada, was actually in my sorority at Cornell, as was RBG. So RBG, Devil Wears Prada, and Betches all sprang from the same sorority house, but the irony is that the latter two would not have sufficient legal protections to exist without the former 🤯
I didn’t like most of Anne Hathaway’s outfits. (I’m searching online for examples but her style in the on-set pap shots is better than the ones I’m remembering from the movie, which were mostly worn in the second half.) ENOUGH WITH THE SEQUINS. AND THE TIES.
So many of her outfits felt like they were trying to recreate this vibe and missed. She wore at least three too many ties.
Stanley Tucci: Best dressed. Tan so good. Aging so well.
All of Emily Blunt’s looks were *Emily Charlton voice* perfectly hideous. Her slutty outfit at the funeral immediately made me think of Lauren Sanchez Bezos at the inauguration. I hope Lauren doesn’t think that the way she’s being referenced here is a compliment. The only iconic thing about this is how historically she and her husband have been cemented as Symbolically Bad People.
BEAUTY
Speaking of the Lauren Sanchez Bezos of it all, let’s talk about aging. It feels like everyone is either giving themselves Mar-a-Lago face or wants to be “aging backwards”. The constant talk of plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancements in The Discourse makes me nauseous, so the age-appropriate faces in DWP truly *Miranda Priestly voice* thrills me.
Imagine if Meryl Streep had noticeable work done between the two movies… all the commentary would be about how she looks insane. Meryl is the pinnacle of graceful aging and she looks amazing. She might even inspire me to go grey.
On a related note, props to Anne Hathaway for keeping her natural teeth. So rare these days.
CULTURE
The interaction between Miranda and Lady Gaga felt a little bit SNL, but it still worked, even if I can’t really imagine that such an interaction would occur.
Miley Cyrus’s song Walk of Fame feels like it was written for this movie and I’m so happy they used it. One of my faves.
ADVERTISERS
I’m curious about the brand placement in the movie and what those arrangements were. Diet Coke was everywhere, labels out. The clothes that Nigel pulled for Andy in the fashion closet (I remember Gabriela Hearst, Brunello Cucinelli, and Toteme) were all paid, I’m guessing? Nothing felt out of place but I’m just curious.
@ PRODUCTION COMPANIES AND INVESTORS: CAN WE PLEASE GET MORE DELIGHTFUL MOVIES LIKE THIS???
“They cared enough to have a perspective.” That’s the whole thing. A movie with this budget could’ve been pure spectacle and nobody would’ve complained. The fact that it chose to say something — about AI, about billionaires, about what media is for — is the part that stays. Great gowns are easy. Meaning is harder.